Kadeem Jack blocks a shot for Rice High in the New York State Federation Tournament of Champions Class AA final in March.

It appears as though Roy Williams has found his rabbit. Now all that’s left is for him to pull it out of his hat.

According to multiple sources both here and in New York, the North Carolina coach is close to landing the last-minute big man he needs to help fill the void left by the unexpected transfer of twin big men David and Travis Wear last week.

The Tar Heels’ target is Kadeem Jack, a raw, but talented 6-foot-9, 210-pound forward from New York City’s Rice High School.

The youngster, who is ranked among the top 50 high school seniors in the country by some services, has previously turned down offers from Arizona, Arkansas, UConn, Seton Hall and St. John’s and is planning to attend South Kent Prep School in Connecticut to help sharpen his skills.

But with North Carolina – and possibly Kentucky – now coming into the picture, Jack appears ready to change his mind.

Adam Zagoria, a blogger for the web site SportsNet New York, quoted South Kent coach Kelvin Jefferson as saying that Jack plans to use his final two official visits to get a closer look at the Tar Heels and Wildcats.

That could happen as early as this week.

“I don’t know too much of the details other than that he told me he’s going to go visit North Carolina and Kentucky,” Jefferson told Zagoria.

Jack catapulted to the top of UNC’s priority list late last week when the Wear twins surprised everyone, including Williams and their now former teammates, by announcing their decision to transfer to another school.

The 6-10 brothers were expected to play backup roles to starters Tyler Zeller and John Henson. Their departure, along with the loss of Ed Davis to the NBA, has left the Tar Heels dangerously thin in the front court, with only 6-8 freshman Harrison Barnes – who is primarily a wing player – left on the roster capable of playing inside.

Williams, in a statement announcing the Wears’ transfer, said that he and his staff would “look at whatever options are available, but it’s hard to replace two quality players at this time.”

With those options limited to a handful of unsigned high school seniors, junior college transfers and international players, the Tar Heels’ focus quickly turned to Jack.

“He’s a late-blooming four-man who finally hit his stride this year,” Scout.com recruiting expert Dave Telep said of Jack. “He’s a legit high-major big man. He’s athletic, he runs, he rebounds … everything you want in a big guy.”

“I’m pretty sure it sounds like a promising situation,” the Journal quoted Damian Leslie, a man described as Jack’s mentor. “I don’t think he would turn that one down. It sounds more like he would visit, though.”

Like UNC, Jack is something of a late-comer as a top recruit.

A native of Trinidad who has played only four years of organized basketball, Jack averaged 16.9 points per game as a senior at Rice. He is in good standing academically and originally decided to attend a prep school so that he could add some polish to his game.

But UNC isn’t looking for him to come in and be an immediate impact player.

Rather, the Tar Heels are hoping he can serve as an insurance policy that provides some solid minutes off the bench, similar to what late pickup Andre Dawkins gave to arch-rival Duke in its national championship run last season.

Adding to the possibility that Jack would be willing to change his plans and attend college next season is the fact that South Kent coach Jefferson told SportsNet New York that the youngster’s prep school enrollment has not yet been finalized.

“He hasn’t applied, that was coming,” Jefferson said. “The application hasn’t been sent in. Nothing has been done.”

Though nothing is set in stone, it seems at this point that the only thing that would prevent Jack from coming to UNC is Kentucky.

Also desperate for a big man after losing C.J. Leslie to N.C. State and Terrence Jones to Washington (although he has yet to actually sign a letter of intent), the Wildcats are also apparently in the market for Jack.

The NCAA’s final 2010 signing period runs through May 19. Players that are unsigned after that date can still enroll to play in the fall, but would not to be bound to any specific school.

I love it when a state school graduate tries to claim such intellectual superiority when the fact is you, Scott, are full entranced in a meaningless argument taking place on a Tuesday night inside the message boards on the New York Times website. Oh wait did I say NYT??? I meant the Wilmington Star. Scott = Joke. Why dont you do us all a favor and disconnect your 100 free hours of AOL and go back to kicking your dog around the trailer court.

Uk still living on past success. Pre1960 – 4 NCAA titles. Post 1960 – 3 titles. Unc pre1960 – 1 title. Post 1980 – 4 titles.
Uk -15 final fours. Unc -18 final fours. Most wins is meaningless unless both teams played the same teams and same number of games. Sec has been softer than acc. In last decade alone, acc has 5 titles to sec’s 2.
Live on uk on your 40s and 50s glory days while unc has 3 final fours in last 6 years to uks 0.

Despite the feud between AAU coach and Roy, Wall still had UNC high on his list and vice versa. The law breaking began and UNC left the chase just as they did several years ago with Jameson Curry who attended Oklahoma St. school of rejected players from other schools.

I am a die-hard Tarheel & I’m enjoying hearing from what seems to be alot of bandwagon Tarheel & KY fans. Personally, I could care less about your stories u dig up. @ the end of the day, the Tarheels have won 2 national titles in THIS decade, while KY has gotten the “best” recruits/recruiting classes. Personally, John Wall was overrated & it showed during the tournament, & so was the entire KY team. The last times Roy got his hands on a class of that nature, we cut the nets down…

For all you private school grads out there (Dear Scott) again, NCAA tourney 4 out of 5 years, 2 NCAA championships, 2 sweet sixteens,
1 NIT runnerup. I’ll put that up against any other schools basketball accomplishments during the period from 2005 to 2010. When all of you can top that get back to me.

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